The OCC was charged to begin the process of organizational renewal in the Library, taking us from where we were to where we wanted to be. In response to a Library wide staff job stress/satisfaction survey, in June 1999 Cabinet created a "Steering Committee on Improving Organizational Culture" (OCC) and charged it to achieve five goals. The OCC believes it has achieved all the goals of the charge: a vision process was created, approved by Roundtable, and implemented. Working statements for Library purpose and values have been completed. A list of proposed library-wide initiatives, based on most widely desired organizational behaviors, has been compiled, and recommendations for continuing organizational renewal have been made. Please see the attachments for the supporting documents.

OCC began its work at a time when low staff morale had been identified as a major concern within the Library. Both the Job Stress/Job Satisfaction Survey and the Blue Ribbon Committee Report on the Library gave voice to staff desires for tangible improvement in communication, for having a voice in decision-making, and for having their concerns folded into the strategic planning efforts of the Library.

Consequently, the OCC adopted process tools to surface and engage sometimes deeply held views, to ensure alignment among members before any important OCC action was implemented, and to ensure not only that the best decisions got made, but that members felt good enough about them to commit to their implementation. Along the way, we made mistakes, we fell into old working and communications habits when the pressure was on, and some feel we took "too long" to get Committee work done--- but we also made progress toward our process goals and produced OCC products that are significantly better for the effort.

Perhaps most important of all is to note that while the OCC provided a process for input and compiled results, it is the Library staff, hundreds strong and speaking up for the best interests of the organization again and again, who are to be credited with the wisdom captured in this final report. The OCC wishes to thank the Library staff for having made success possible.